Our local paper today published an op ed piece I wrote about the guidance published recently by the Department of Education on how schools can satisfy their legal obligations to make their sports programs accessible to students with disabilities. The school in Minnesota are, I think, exceptionally progressive on this front; it has been a surprising blessing for my son and my family.

Watching how my son has benefited from being involved in sports has radically shifted my own perspective on high school sports programs. As a nerdy non-athlete, I've frankly been rather skeptical about the place of sports programs in schools, as a pedagogical matter. Watching my son and his teammates (who have no realistic hope or aspiration of college sports scholarships or professional sports careers), in an odd way has let me see the effect of involvement in sports stripped clean of the benefits that only accrue to the very best athletes, as I describe in the op ed piece. So, chalk this up as yet another of the many things my son has taught our family.